Though epinephrine is often used to help control bleeding during lesion excision, the repair of lip/facial lacerations, and other accessible surface procedures, it may be difficult to employ in the lip/mouth use environment due to the very quick absorption in that vessel-rich environment (which could result in tachycardia) and the potential for undesirable heart issues, particularly in the elderly patient population, where there is also a predilection to oral lesions and cancers. In addition, the use of epinephrine in the lip causes vascular constriction and blanching of the “red” portion of the lip, thus replicating the color of the surrounding skin. When the “redder” lip color is not available as a guide, the alignment of the wound edges can become quite complicated and imprecise.
Furthermore, lip lacerations bleed profusely, possibly resulting in significant blood loss. In addition, due to the red lip mucosa and facial skin interface in the lip area, it may be desirable to carefully approximate and control motion of the lip/mouth tissues to avoid a “mismatch” or other unwanted visible artifact of the surgical process.